Massively

Aion double AP event looks to temporarily revitalize endgame

Jef Reahard — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Events, in-game, MMO industry, PvP, News items

Spend any time at Aion's endgame and you'll quickly realize that everything revolves around Abyss Points (AP). Hitting 55 is really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to PvE progression and the ability to be competitive in PvP, as you'll need plenty of pricey gear and stigmas to stand a chance. AP is so important, in fact, that even PvE mobs in the Abyss and Inggison dole it out.

Unfortunately for Daevas everywhere, the AP gods are undeniably stingy. Acquiring a full set of 55 armor, jewelry, and the weapon of your choice literally takes months (or even years) depending on how much AP you manage to farm on a daily basis. NCsoft is temporarily addressing this problem with a new in-game event dubbed For War and Glory. The event's double AP bonuses (and halved AP losses) kick off today and will run through the server reset on March 30th.

NCsoft is also tweaking the game's rifting mechanic yet again, and defensive buffs in Heiron and Beluslan will be removed until March 23rd (buffs in Eltnen and Morheim remain). Both events are part of the larger Spring 2011 Reactivation Celebration, which runs from March 24th to March 31st and welcomes back Daevas to "train for the greatest battle this planet has seen yet." Check out all the details on the official Aion website.

Aion double AP event looks to temporarily revitalize endgame originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exclusive Aion lead producer interview

Jef Reahard — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Interviews, Patches, News items

Aion fans have been on a roller coaster ride of late, what with the recent announcement of the launch date for the highly anticipated 1.9 patch, as well as teasers regarding 2.0 potentially coming to America in the Fall. Tempering the good news was the announcement of pending server mergers, which are rarely regarded as a good thing in the player community.

In light of all the goings on, we were able to sit down with NCsoft's Chris Hager, Lead Producer for the western version of Aion, for some frank questions about the game, the company behind it, and the future.

Fly past the cut for the full interview.

Continue reading Exclusive Aion lead producer interview

Exclusive Aion lead producer interview originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts

Kyle Horner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items

One of the continued complaints we hear from Aion players is that bots litter the game's digital landscape, severely reducing the enjoyment of actual flesh-n-bones players. So we feel inclined to shout, "Good news, everybody!" at today's announcement by NCsoft that nearly 16,000 accounts have been banned during a recent unscheduled server reboot.

That's a huge number and certainly nothing to scoff about. This should hopefully alleviate much of the problem, at least temporarily -- and then future banhammers will likely come crashing down.

We hope nobody was caught in the crossfire with today's bans, but if you do find yourself without an Aion account to play and are 100% sure of your innocence, you can create a support ticket. Obviously, this isn't ideal if you're suddenly without your account, so with any luck there aren't any cases of mistakenly banned players.

NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion live server numbers crunched

Brooke Pilley — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, New titles

Aion has been out for roughly 6 weeks so we thought it might be fun to crunch some of the numbers NCsoft provides on their official North American website. We've taken a look at realm balance, class balance, and what level Aion's population is at. Data collection occurred on November 12 at noon Eastern. A spreadsheet containing all data can be viewed here.

Realm population balance (Elyos vs. Asmodian)

Realm population balance is 50/50 on 3 of 14 servers. The remaining 11 servers have the Asmodians ahead of the Elyos by a 51:49 ratio. It appears as if NCsoft's forced realm population balance mechanic is keeping things under control, but one wonders how rampant these disparities would be if character creation was unrestricted. We've seen unbalanced two-faction MMOs before.

It should be stated that these numbers only represent a tally of Elyos and Asmodians across all servers and not how organized or active each realm is in PvPvE.

Continue reading Aion live server numbers crunched

Aion live server numbers crunched originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2

Kyle Horner — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Massively Interviews

Continue reading Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2

Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Breaking: ArenaNet co-founder leaves NCsoft

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Aion, Guild Wars, MMO industry, Guild Wars 2

MMORPG.com is reporting that both Jeff Strain and David Reid have recently departed NCsoft West. Strain, the President of Product Development for the newly-restructured NCsoft West and Reid, the President of Publishing are both said to have left for "unrelated" reasons.

Jeff Strain has always been much more than just a co-founder of ArenaNet, as his visions have driven the company to spectacular feats with their blockbuster title Guild Wars. David Reid was brought on last year with the newly-announced NC West, which aimed to re-structure the company on the tails of Tabula Rasa's closing. Does this spell even more bad news for NCsoft, only a month before they launch Aion? According to a press release from NCsoft West Public Relations Director Ryan James, "These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches." That may be true, but it's the reputation that seems to be in the most trouble now. We wish Mr. Strain and Mr. Reid the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Breaking: ArenaNet co-founder leaves NCsoft originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah yes, more sprinkles of Guild Wars 2 news

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, MMO industry, New titles, Guild Wars 2, Rumors

Our friend Ravious at Kill Ten Rats is at it again with some pretty impressive detective work on the current state of Guild Wars 2. To be fair, Ravious is simply gathering the info he finds on the various Guild Wars forums from others who are doing the actual detective work, but it still makes our jobs a whole lot easier. Some of this was already known, some of it is new, but it's all interesting.

In his most recent GW2 post, we get word of a forum member named 4thVariety who has been following the trademark licensing and domain registration habits of ArenaNet's trademark lawyer, Mr. Peter J. Willsey. When GW2 was first announced, Mr. Willsey trademarked BlightedEmpires.com, and has since renewed the domain on March 12th of this year. Speculation, of course, centers around the fact that this may or may not be the name of the highly successful game's sequel.

Continue reading Ah yes, more sprinkles of Guild Wars 2 news

Ah yes, more sprinkles of Guild Wars 2 news originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft West gets a new CEO

William Dobson — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, News items

There's been another shift in the staffing over at NCsoft West. This time, former CEO Chris Chung will be moving aside to let Jaeho Lee take his place. Lee was the chief financial officer of NCsoft, and his appointment at NC West was made with the intention of improving the subsidiary's communication with home base in Korea. NCsoft's corporate PR director Jae Sung Lee gave a comment to Kotaku regarding the move:

"As part of the corporation's global strategy, global management grows increasingly important, and the need to work together across business units becomes paramount to our success. This personnel change increases our ability in each market to remain competitive."

Chris Chung hasn't been turfed out on to the front doorstep as a result of the move and will remain where he is at NCsoft West, albeit with a lesser job title.

NCsoft West gets a new CEO originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 May 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Going along with the continuous restructuring of NCsoft West, the European Aion community team has recently been invited to take the long swim across the Atlantic Ocean and join US community manager Liv in Seattle, forming a unified Aion community team.

Sebastian "Ayase" Streiffert, the United Kingdom community manager, and Martin "Amboss" Rabl, the German community manager will be flying to the United States, while Loic "Atreid" Claveau, the French community manager, has declined the position in favor of moving to the marketing department in Brighton.

Ayase, Amboss, and Atreid have all written blog posts reflecting on their individual decisions, and they can be read over at the Aion Europe community site. Amboss's and Atreid's posts have been written in their native languages, but it's nothing that a web translator can't handle. (And by handle I mean rip to shreds, but at least give you the general idea.)

Welcome to the United States, Ayase and Amboss!

Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft Seattle hiring for console programmers

Shawn Schuster — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, MMO industry

What layoffs? In the wake of the recent "structural changes" from NCsoft, it appears they're now entering a strong wave of hiring, according to Gamasutra and the job section of their PlayNC.com website. Yet, it's not so much the fact that they're hiring, it's the fact that one of their many positions include a Programmer/Engineer for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Speculation has arisen that this may be related to something ArenaNet is doing, although it's important to note that NCsoft makes the distinction between Bellevue, Washington, where ArenaNet is located and Seattle, Washington, where NCsoft West's headquarters are located.

But if you want to actually talk about ArenaNet jobs, we can certainly do that. Currently, they're hiring for 14 positions, including Web Development, Programmers and Artists. If you think you have what it takes, head on over to their jobs board and see what they have for you. We look forward to hearing more about what NCsoft and ArenaNet have in store.

[Thanks Nirolak!]

NCsoft Seattle hiring for console programmers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How NCsoft should have done their layoffs

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items, Opinion

Adam Martin is no stranger to NCsoft or the game industry. We've already covered both his look into the failure of Tabula Rasa from his position at NCsoft, as well as his advice on how to approach customer service. His current topic, however, is a bit more edgy than usual.

Adam takes a crack at the NCsoft layoffs, not only saying they were expected but also going further by giving advice on how to properly lay off employees and departments. He makes the point that the company is simultaneously doing two things: both cleaning up the mess of a partial layoff in the development department in the European offices and transitioning the company into the hands of Arena.net veterans rather than Destination Games/Origin Systems veterans.

It may be a harsh situation, but Adam's post brings up many good points on how the whole thing could have been handled more effectively from a business stand-point. Check out his entire article over at his blog, T=Machine.

How NCsoft should have done their layoffs originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands on with the City of Heroes Mac Client

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Hands-on

Recently NCsoft gave us the chance to get our hands on the beta version of the City of Heroes Mac client, letting us finally run around Paragon City and the Rogue Isles from the comfort of Mac OS X.

While the client doesn't deliver anything new to the City of Heroes gameplay table, it is a really well done port over to OS X. The client still connects to the main City of Heroes servers, allowing Mac users to play seamlessly with their PC friends. Nothing like EverQuest for Mac, more like the EVE Online port for OS X.

What really surprised me about this port is just how well it runs on the Mac compared to other games. Especially when the Mac in question is a laptop that sports an Intel integrated graphics chip instead of a powerhouse nVidia or ATI video card.

Continue reading Hands on with the City of Heroes Mac Client

Hands on with the City of Heroes Mac Client originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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City of Heroes saves the day on the Mac

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, MMO industry, News items

Mac users, have no fear! City of Heroes is here! Yes, the original superhero MMO is swooping down onto Apple computers everywhere as NCsoft releases the City of Heroes Mac open beta test, with a release date set for January of 2009. Now Mac users can join in the fight for Paragon City or create chaos in the Rogue Isles without having to dual boot their computers or another medium.

Yet, the fun doesn't stop there for Mac CoH players. An exclusive mission teleport power, which allows the player to instantly teleport to their active mission location, and Valkyrie costume set will be made available to all players who purchase the game via digital download in January. Getting the game for your Mac and getting the ability to save time while looking cool? Very superheroic indeed.

City of Heroes saves the day on the Mac originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: You've been Auto-Assaulted

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Anti-Aliased

"Absolutely. [The restructuring] has no impact on Tabula Rasa. ... I don't know where the rumors are coming from, but with [marketing blitz] Operation Immortality in full swing, the team's very dedicated to that game, and they are still working on it," said David Swofford, Director of Public Relations of NCsoft to Edge Online on September 11th.

"Tabula Rasa is a triple-A MMO. It is a game that is very much in the wheelhouse of what NC West and NCsoft globally are all about," said David Reid, President of Publishing of NC West on September 24th. "...we see improvement happening in Tabula Rasa. We're encouraged by it."

So, NCsoft, how does it feel to absolutely lie through your teeth to players and staff about Tabula Rasa?

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: You've been Auto-Assaulted

Anti-Aliased: You've been Auto-Assaulted originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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